Joe Benning Photography

Travel & Photo Blog

  •   Reston, VA

Sunday in Bordeaux

We had beautiful weather during our day trip to Cognac. The next day, Sunday, was also very nice in Bordeaux. We hiked over to to the Basilica (Basilique Saint-Seurin) for the 9:00 AM Mass which was, of course, all in French.  The building of the Basilique Saint-Seurin de Bordeaux (Basilica of Saint Severinus in English) […]

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A Day Trip to Cognac

After a mildly harrowing week, five of us set off for a guided tour of Cognac. The guide picked us up at our hotel and we drove off on our way to Cognac. It’s a pleasant drive of about an hour and a half through the French countryside, similar to the drive to the Médoc […]

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Hanging Out in Bordeaux

This week—during the week—we’ve been kind of hanging out in Bordeaux and going to French class. Among other things we took a couple of boat rides up and down the Garrone river where we could get a view of some of the bridges that cross the river including the Stone Bridge that we cross every […]

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In The Dordogne Valley

Along with Gerry Ponto we went took a train ride out to Sarlat in the French countryside for a weekend visit. Sarlat, in the Dordogne valley, has a reputation for being a stunningly beautiful village. It is undoubtedly that, and much more. Sarlat is surrounded by other beautiful and picturesque villages, complete with medieval castles […]

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In the ‘Hood

The last few days saw us taking several walks around the neighborhood where we are staying in Bordeaux. We also took a trip up to the Médoc Region where we—you guessed it—did a little more wine tasting. First: the ‘hood. We are staying at the Adagio Hotel while we are in Bordeaux. It’s kind of an […]

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Très, Très, Occupe

We have been very, very, awfully busy. Just this last weekend we visited the French section of the Basque Country. It is French enough, and Paris exercises sovereignty over it,  but apparently the people also consider themselves to be Basque which comes complete with its own language. Not an unusual situation in the world when […]

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More Adventures in Bordeaux

We continued our adventure in Bordeaux with a photo walk with a photographer around a few parts of town. On our walk we went to the public garden—a botanic garden that is open to the public. Both the public garden and nearby surrounding areas have Roman ruins that have been preserved through the centuries.  A […]

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Busy in Bordeaux

We have been awfully busy lately. Among other things, we have been looking at the architecture of the city, which is pretty incredible and we still have a lot to see. Below, for instance is a iPhone panoramic photo taken inside one of the churches in St Emilion in the Bordeaux region of France. In […]

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Welcome to Bordeaux!

Well, we made it. We made it in spite of the fact that on our scheduled day of departure Air France sent us an e-mail a little before 6:00 AM informing us that our flights were cancelled. Just like that. Not even an explanation—even in corporate speak—as to why. Based on news reports we surmised […]

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